Press Note
ICA at the forefront to promote “Integrated Digital Solutions
for a Smarter and Digitally enabled India"
New Delhi, 23rd July, 2015: Taking forward the momentum of the Government's flagship
"Digital India" program, aimed at transforming the nation into a digitally empowered
society and enhancing the state of Governance in the country, the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organized a seminar on "Integrated
Digital Solutions for a Smarter India" in New Delhi yesterday.
Senior officials from the Government of India and industry leaders addressed the
audience, and discussed regarding the scope and role of communication technologies,
challenges currently been faced and finding out solutions towards realizing an ICTdriven digitally enabled agenda to transform India as a digitally empowered society and
how to effectively address and eradicate the digital divide of today.
Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) and
Chairman – Fast Track Task Force (FTTF) set up by DeitY to promote mobile
manufacturing eco-system in India, one of the key speakers during the
panel discussion on “Leveraging Information communications technology in building
India’s digital future” highlighted that “in order to make Digital India initiative a success,
the Government must deeply focus on the bottom of the pyramid population, those who
own low end Smartphone / feature phones and focus must be to build up robust
solutions to handle the issues faced by the targeted population, which are related to
network connectivity, battery life, display and issues faced from related segments
e.g. towers, operators etc.”
Mr. Mohindroo further highlighted that, “Increase in local language content is another
important issue, and solutions related to these needs to be implemented in handsets to
increase mobile penetration and increase in its usage. Mobile handsets should come up
with certain number of Vernacular Languages which should be pre-loaded in the phone
to drive forward the Digital India agenda.”
Mr. Sanjay Bhasin, Trustee and Deputy Chairman of the Apex Council of the Action
Centre for Smart and Broadband Bharat (ACSBB) and former VP – Samsung Network
division, while taking part in the Panel discussion mentioned that, “There should be an
integrated and common approach to be followed by all relevant stakeholders from the
Government and Industry to work together in addressing the common challenges which
hinders the growth of the Digital India mandate. For example Issues like laying up of
Optical fibres, which involve multiple Government agencies and Industry stakeholders
need to be commonly planned and executed for getting better results.”
The Action Centre for Smart and Broadband Bharat (ACSBB) has been instituted under
the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), as an independent and not-for-profit body, which
has been mandated to closely work with GOI agencies, various State Governments and
Industry stakeholders to carry forward the agenda on Digital India and help realize the
goal in establishment of a digitally empowered society. The Apex Council of ACSBB has
extremely rich experience to act as the leading Think-Tank of the Country to support
NOFN, Smart Cities and Delhi Wi-Fi projects.
The Indian Cellular Association (ICA) has recently entered into an agreement with the
Institute for Information Industry (III), Taiwan to co-operate in various fields including the
National Optical Fibre Network (NoFN), Smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT) and
promote other technologies to take forward the Digital India vision of the Government of
India. Joining hands with Globally renowned institutions like III, Taiwan is considered to
be an important milestone and in further boosting the charter of ACSBB.